On Sunday afternoon, Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal record. The remarkable feat by the Kings and Oilers legend stood the test of time for 31 years until Ovechkin took the crown. Despite the impressive milestone, ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe believes it isn’t the greatest scoring milestone. He remains unsurprisingly adamant that LeBron James’ NBA scoring record reigns as the most impressive.
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Arguably the most noteworthy aspect of the Russian superstar’s record is the amount of games it took to accomplish. Gretzky played a total of 1,487 games and tallied 894 goals. Ovechkin was able to score his 895th goal in his 1,487th game. Although it is impressive, Sharpe’s seen a greater accomplishment.
LeBron broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record in the 2022-23 season. It has now been nearly two full seasons since he accomplished the feat which has given Sharpe more than enough time to prepare a compelling argument.
Sharpe took to ESPN’s First Take to play the role of defense on behalf of James.
“Let me tell you how impressive LeBron James’ record is, he did it in 150 fewer games,” Sharpe said. “It took the same amount of games, 1,497, for [Ovechkin] to break Gretzky’s. LeBron broke Kareem’s record that stood for 40 years in 150 fewer games. He still ain’t played the number of games Kareem played.”
Sharpe doesn’t intend to discredit Ovechkin’s tremendous achievement but doesn’t think there is an argument to be made. LeBron’s ability to take the crown for the NBA’s all time scorer in such an efficient fashion can not be understated. Some would point out his previous LeBron-based bias, but he has a point.
The NFL legend brought up the fact that James has played in 1559 games, and Abdul-Jabbar played in 1560 games. In that time since LeBron broke the record until now, he has reached 42,115 points. Kareem’s record stood for 40 years at 38,387. It’s safe to assume LeBron’s record may last even longer.
Regardless, Sharpe believes Ovechkin deserves all the praise for the goal record. Plenty of other athletes around the world have shown their support to the 39-year-old star.
NBA stars showed love to Ovechkin amid milestone
The NBA stood in solidarity to support Ovechkin during his historic moment. The NHL gathered some of the greatest athletes to share words of encouragement and praise to the Capitals star. Among the select group was LeBron James.
James shared a heap of praise toward Ovechkin as someone who understands what it takes to become a record-setter.
“I know when reaching any type of goal or any type of feat it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice,” James said.
LeBron knows a thing or two about record-setting moments @KingJames congratulates The Great 8 on becoming the NHL’s all-time leader in goals! #Gr8ness pic.twitter.com/8A2AV7VXgJ
— NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2025
The respect level between the two is extremely high. Ovechkin and LeBron sit atop their sports with no one in sight of them for the foreseeable future.
